Systems and methods have existed for sending text messages, such as SMS messages, for many years. Over the last decade, SMS usage has increased significantly. SMS is now used for business communication. But such business use presents a number of challenges. Aside from encryption and securing communications, compliancy, reporting and auditing have become major requirements for many vertical industries, such as finance, government and healthcare businesses. Present systems and methods for SMS communications, however, are inadequate to meet these requirements.
Practically all mobile phones are capable of sending SMS messages. The user of the phone, however, typically must sign up for a proper SMS plan with his/her carrier. When SMS is used for communication, there is no easy solution to trace the communication that is taking place. This makes SMS communication an unsuitable tool for an enterprise that requires tracking and reporting of the information for the purpose of audits and compliance.
When sending SMS from one mobile device to another, SMS is sent directly from the mobile device to the carrier for that mobile device. If the recipient's mobile device is with the same carrier, then the communication is sent to the recipient's device. Otherwise, the communication is sent to the carrier of the recipient which again transmits the communication to the recipient's mobile device. In either case, the typical path for SMS does not get stored in a manner that is managed by the enterprise. Although the communication via SMS is stored within the carrier infrastructure (including carrier partners and vendors), for an enterprise to obtain reports for the purpose of compliancy would require special arrangements with the carrier.
Furthermore, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is an industry trend and as a result, more and more enterprises must deal with a variety of phones and carriers. This makes having arrangements with carriers to obtain SMS reporting a difficult, if not impossible, task. Furthermore, in a BYOD environment, when employees leave the company, they typically continue receiving SMS messages on their personal mobile phone from their customers or other employees because there is no easy way to route SMS messages of one phone to another. Even in a corporate environment in which the enterprise provides the phones, many employees may request to forward their phone numbers to their own personal mobile phone since they may receive personal calls or SMS messages on such numbers. This issue is more evident when many device manufacturers and/or mobile vendors offer containerization solutions for mobile devices, which allow enterprise and personal applications and/or information to coexist on the same mobile phone.
There exist needs and potential for benefits for tracking communication between employee and employee as well as between employee and consumers/customers. As used in this specification, such tracking can include recording, archiving, making available for reporting and/or storing for an extended period of time. Compliance with many different regulations (such as SOX, FINRA and so on) requires tracking of communications. For example, FINRA requires employees of financial institutions, more specifically brokers, to track their communications with their clients or consumers. Similarly, other institutions may have to or wish to track forms of communication such as messaging or voice, all textual messages like email or SMS as well as all voice communication from mobile calls between their staff and customers.
In addition, there is a need to provide a personal number to mobile users that is separate from the carrier assigned number and that allows an enterprise to retain the ownership of such number and consequently continue receiving the company's SMS messages and/or voice calls after the employee is gone.
It is an object of the present invention, among other things, to provide a system and method that allows an institution or enterprise to track SMS communication, such as the communication that takes place between an employee of an organization and consumers/customers of that organization, and to meet the needs described above.
Potential for improvement exists in these and other areas that may be apparent to a person of skill in the art having studied this document.